The Library, Winter

At left, public domain image of the New York Yacht Club library. Wikicommons hosts the picture now out of copyright.

The Library at the Amber Angler's club is somewhat more compact. We do however serve a very fine scotch and several decent bourbons.

I'm in the library. It isn't just for storing books and tying flies (along with plotting world domination). It is a place to read undisturbed by spouse or some pets.

Page 160 of my edition. I quote:

The trout really do take to designs better than patterns. That is to say, they look at how a fly is behaving before they consider its color. The concept of design makes sense when you hear what the trout say, and therefore is the title of this book.

Datus Proper, What the Trout Said, (Knopf, New York, 1982).

I'm at the vise and tying. I am tying for the '16 season with an eye of being one of those anglers who -- when dropped on any stream in North America -- has at his disposal the flies on hand to imitate the actions of the predominant food source on a stream regardless of species or season.

To some anglers, this means six boxes and a vault back in the car. To me it means 20 - 30 drys, and an equal number of wets in two small shirt pocket boxes. Oh, a note on boxes.

Last year, I stumbled on Chris Lantzy [here] He's a fishing traditionalist, rod maker, gear maker, and damn decent human being. I haven't had the pleasure of spending time on the water in his company, but I will. He's down the road in Pennsylvania.

Chris makes some wonderful soft fly wallets that are ideal fly gear. I used both the mini and the full size last year and gave a mini to all the Amber Anglers at spring camp. Excellent gear.

I like the mini fly wallet better than my small-sized Orvis aluminum day box ...though the shirt-pocket day box protects intricate dry flies quite well, too. I used mostly soft-hackled flies as scum-film wets last year an a little crush makes them even more useful on the water.

Anyway, your day boxes for success. Back on topic ...

I love fly shops. I love to stop and talk about what is going on with the river.

I don't think I need "Mark's Tiny Purple Sorensan with a Double Pike One-and-a-half Gainer."

I need a dark spider in size 16 with a Gnat dropper in 18 fished about 24" below the spider.  

The goal is to have at hand a ready selection of flies to account for being two hours from the car when rain sets in and the Hendrickson's start popping off in size 18-16. Sounds like an olive partridge in 16 with 8 inch tag hare's ear in 18 fished upstream in riffled seams coming off rocks and logs.

That last part is the important part. More important that anything else. Let's play Professor for a moment and analyze that sentence.

Sounds like an olive partridge in 16 with 8 inch tag hare's ear in 18 fished upstream in riffled seams coming off rocks and logs.

What Dataus Proper is saying, and what many others have said, is that the behavior of the fly is the critical part. The trout having to make up his mind on "food" or "not food" very quickly uses some sort of crude instinctive logic. Remember ... he has the brain of a frog. Yep, a frog. He's not very smart. He doesn't have "reasoning" skills. He has instinct. He's hardwired. He doesn't have adaptable programming.

 Our sentence.

"Olive" - hrmph. Half of all food in the stream is light or dark olive and the other half is dark brown-black. Hardly too distinguishing, then. This description tells us to make sure the fly does not resemble "Not" food. Don't screw the pooch. Got it.

"Partridge" - in context, resembling any sparse emerger or dun. Bugs have wings and legs but these aren't off a 747 and do not resemble a seven-bladed Sikorsky. The bits that "stick out" are few and sparse. So, partridge doesn't matter and starling or hen could do as well. Maribou or Bunny Strips are however right out. Also, we're talking about things in the first 1 - 4 inches of water when we talk partridge. A drop of floatant and we're talking scum. So, this word means a lot to us ...because we expect it to alert fish to "food" floating.

"16" - size matters. Fish eat size 4 hex. Yes. They do not eat size 4 bat-wing hex in April. Size is a key.

"8 inch tag" - we're in the surface film with the partridge. We're toward the top of the top 1/3 of the water column with the dropper. Important. It means we expect the fish to be following food "up" from the bottom 1/3 where they hang about. Current breaks happen at the bottom more than the top and trout are ...lazy.

"Hare's ear" ... any suitable non-distinct larvae/pupae here. Caddis? check. Iso? check. Mayfly? check. Remember, the trout has about a second to recognize it in the water. He's not going to Ann Miller's fine book [ Hatch Guide for Upper Michigan Streams ] for any comparisons. The modifier "about" in the phrase "looks about like ..." in a trout's go/no-go logic circuit is key. Hare's Ear really does "look about like" a great deal. You knew that, though.

"In 18" ... again, most than half of a trout's early season sub-surface food is size 16 -18. I'd say 3/4 of everything a trout less than 14" - 16" eats is subsurface in 16-18 but I'm not a fisheries biologist. Haven't got the right hat.

 "fished upstream in riffled seams coming off rocks and logs."  The meat of our sentence lies here. Everything else hangs from it.  Upstream ... so the drift works best at our target point of presentation, the hook-ups go best from the take, and the odds of spooking the fish go way down.

Success in a single word right there: upstream.

Riffled seams? Hendrickson's drift for a bit in the surface film. They drown easily in turbulent flow ...thus riffles. Just downstream, fish eat in the concentrated flow of bugs that now are easy to catch ...remember: trout are lazy.

So, the assertion is that we could manage this hatch situation in several forms with a wide variety of patterns providing our flies act like the natural insect. Behavior, then size.

Color or true resemblance?

It's a fly. The trout sees the big hook. You see the shiny pointy thing, don't you? Think the trout doesn't? He earns his living looking at food. He KNOWS your fly has a hook.

What he cannot do is form a reasoned appreciation of your hook. Food vs. Not Food.

Fly acts like food (most important job)?
Fly appears in portion of stream with most currently available food source?
Fly is roughly size and shape of food source?
Fly does not possess a color which detracts from its appearance as food source when in the water?

Fish thinks it is food.

Presentation in the best form for hooking success with minimized chances of spooking fish?

Successful trout outing.

We're in the library. We're getting smarter. We're tying utility flies that catch fish in many situations.

We're staying away from flies that include the description "and a one-and-a-half gainer."

Have you read Datus? You should. Ask at your local bookstore. It's out of print. They'll get it though.

My bookstore: Motte and Bailey. [ here ] Oh, be nice to Gene. He's lived with me and that takes a certain toll.

Prost.

Outings Plan - 2016

At left, public domain image (thanks, Anjbe) on wikicommons of a classic excursion tent famed in the 50's and 60's. Weighs about a ton wet or dry.

Nice basecamp, though. I wonder if they come pre-impregnated with skunk odor or that's just how they end up over the years?

I'm planning my 2016 outings. Never too early.

For the Amber Liquid guys, here's what I am planning. Where dates are known, I've put them down.

1. Trout Camp -> Mason Tract South Branch Au Sable. Canoe Harbor Campground featuring Ol' Delano as base camp. (Thanks, Big Bear!). May. The Mason Tract is good brown trout fishing. Car camping.
2. Father's Day Camp -> Mason Tract South Branch Au Sable. Canoe Harbor Campground. June. Brown Tout summer outing. Dry Fly and Soft hackled flies in the surface film fishing. Probably another up-on-Thursday and back-on-Sunday affair. Car camping.
3. Deward Dry Camp. -> Upper Manistee.= for wilderness brook trout.You can camp in the Deward tract within 50 feet of the roads so: car camping. No facilities so I will bring my own water. However, I need transport help to make it down the two-tracts.  My trout car is a BMW Z4 ... not exactly a two-track champ. It does attract  my wife who likes fast rides in a convertible and ice cream outings on warm summer evenings. Outing is definitely SUV camping.
4. Keystone Landing Camp -> Main Branch Au Sable and North Branch Outing. Keystone is a great evening wade on the Au Sable at dusk and dawn (no canoes ...water calms) during the summer proper. My North branch outing is from Powerline to Lovells and then the area around Dam 4 lower down. I've not fished Dam 4 before and so will be adding it to the trip. Car camping.
5. Adams Fly Origin -> Up to the Boardman River and Scheck's Place trail camp. Some say the Boardman is off these years. I have to try. If I leave Michigan without fishing the birthplace of the Adams fly, what stories can I actually tell?  This has good July possibilities when the Au Sable has its annual canoe marathon outbreak. Car camping.
6. Trout Dash Manistee - Upper Manistee River Campground. I need a good place to make a dash and during last fall's Manistee outing I enjoyed the gentle bends of the river along the campground. Sure, there are canoes. Always canoes in Michigan. However, the river had a nice turn here and I think dawn/dusk will offer a lot in the summer. I plan on most dashing to involve the Mason Tract and the South Branch but this is a campground area is a nice spot for a little outing, too. Car camping ( 100 yard walk-in).
7. Sturgeon Surgeon Wilderness Prescription -> Green Timbers on the Sturgeon River. This is a wilderness hike-in and camp on the Sturgeon river. It isn't much of hike as I intend (less than 3 miles) but it is unimproved wilderness dispersed camping along a spring-creek style river. I still want to hike-in and fish the Jordan but the river is tough - very tough - and not the sort of place I'm inclined to go alone. Bears (just black bears) and very treacherous wades wait on the Jordan and so might just wait another year for me. The Sturgeon has some open, gentle, seldom visited sections and this wilderness park is one. How much pressure can a river have if you hike-in two to three miles? As much holiday and solace as trout outing, this trip has a great deal to offer in less-visited parts of Michigan. Great when everyone is on the Au Sable accessible parts! This is a hike and pack-in trip. 

So, there is plenty here beyond smallmouth in the Huron and trout fishing in the evening on my local Mill Creek restoration stream. Mill Creek offers bar-b-que supper (Hotel Hickman cowboy cooking ... tasty ribs and pork) and the Beer Grotto (craft beer watering hole) as well as the Null Taproom and soon: grub pub annex. Right now it is beer only from the Northern Brewing Alliance - including Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak.

Plenty of trout fishing to make happen.

Next year: Northern Michigan Fox River and the Fox River Pathway Trail.

First dash to the Mason Tract ... late March? We'll check the weather. Certainly there will be a trip in April.

All welcome to join. Spending the night even on a one-day up-and-back really makes the trip easier. Extra tent and cot available for use.

Prost.

At The Bench

At left, and image from Michael Maggs of a Durham Ranger from wikicommons. Michael is good enough to let us share the image for just the price of a nice attribution.

Great image - but then it is one of the best on wilicommons. Pretty high praise.


I'm tying.

Right now, I'm tying a Klinkhammers which will be my go-to dry this year along with the Deer Hair Caddis.

The Klinkhammer will let me see the take when there is almost enough light to fish and will let me suspend my duo beneath for early season nymphing. I'm still on the soft hackles. The Klinkhammer tied by me becomes a horizontally registered soft-hackled fly.

There isn't much else to say.

I'm looking towards the weekend where I may get an hour of high-stick nymphing in out on Mill Creek. We're not iced-up yet.

I'm drinking decaf coffee and tying flies.

I'm dreaming of spring outings.

I'm looking forward to the early season trout dashes up north. Hot food this year: that'll be something new.

Stay off the sauce. Stay on the vise.

Dream of spring days.

Prost.

The Christmas Trout

Public domain image from wikicommons at left. Those of you of a certain age will recognize some of these ornaments. My family had the small bugle and a matching French Horn.

We used those bloody icicles, too. Usually, putting them on the tree could be could be counted on to result in a fight. Setting-up the tree was known as "the main event."

"A little to the left ... it's leaning. Now the hole is showing."

The Amber Liquid crew is going to meet for Amber Liquids on Christmas Eve at a local watering hole. I can be assured there will be no fights setting up those rounds!

Every fishing group should meet on Christmas Eve for drinks. It should be a world-wide tradition. We shouldn't call it Christmas Eve. It should be "the afternoon I piss away with my fishing buddies." It beats going through the airport.

I'm going to mention here that I bought my wife a synthetic fur for Christmas. [ She won't wear the real kind.] I'd have to work pretty hard to mess-up this holiday; but, I've been known to try.

I've been hiding from my vise.

I intended to tie up a bunch of flies for the Amber Liquid guys as a small Christmas present. I haven't.

I'm in my library now and could be tying but have two serious vocational projects and a pair of avocational writing projects to finish. No tying today. They'll all make due with a pint. It isn't a crew for mush and sentiment, anyway.

I've been trying to give some business this year to my local start-up fly shop. I've done pretty well.

I've spent about five years of fishing budget in the shop upgrading gear all of which was perfectly good to start with and none of which has found a new home despite being relegated to "the pile."  I night have to give some of it away.

"First one is free."

Three rods this year. Yea. Three. By my wife's judgement, they'd all be bargains. They're in the  "Buy Now and Save" class of bargains. Hey, I'm a sucker for pretty varnish. Put it on something blonde and I'll pay twice as much. [ Ba-dump bump. We're here all week, folks. Tell your friends.].

The Christmas Trout has been kind to me this year but it is time to spend nothing on gear and spend more on trips fishing. After all, gear is lovely stuff to fondle and write about; but, time on the water is the joy.

Naturally, my little shop is now a Loop dealer. That stuff is like crack to me.

I wanted to buy a Loop reel when I was in Sweden a few years ago but didn't. I bought a new offshore jacket instead and if you've bought Helly Hansen gear before they became the Scandinavian version of Eddie Bauer you know that the reel would have been the cheaper option.

I'm writing this when I should be either at work or downstream on the Huron fishing for steelhead. I'm hoping the effort will pay off and the Christmas Trout will bring me fair days and cold water in the next year.

I'm buying myself a new Solo stove for Christmas. I'm tired of cold sandwiches and breakfast bars. I want something hot when I'm on a trout dash. I'm getting soft.

Good luck this season. The wading can be treacherous. Hope the Christmas Trout brings you single-malt for the flask.

Prost.   

Two Hands, Please

   

Above, a park on the Kalamazoo river near Douglas, MI. Picture on the public domain site describing the park.

One of the Amber Anglers has a wonderful vacation home in Douglas and was gracious to extend an invitation to fish the Kalamazoo this Halloween weekend. We were ten minutes from his door to this site.

It gave me an excuse to use a new gem: an Echo Glass #3 10'6" Switch rod. Handle below (borrowed from Echo site ...probably won't mind).

It's a lovely rod. I've used it a couple times and unintentionally hooked a little bass (year round catch-immediate-release restrictions) on the Huron down the hill from my house.  This outing was a chance to really open-up.

The Kalamazoo river is some 200 to 300 feet wide.  The depth runs a pretty uniform three-to-four feet at this stretch. There are a few sand holes but one can wade out pretty far. The current was moderate and the steelhead come up this section. We went after a rain, had three nice chrome fish jump around us, and enjoyed a great session on the water.

The season is pretty young with few moving in the channel, if you ask the fish.

Kevin used a proper two-handed beast: a Sage One outfitted with a beautiful Ross reel. Nice rod. Nearly 12 or 13 feet (cannot remember precisely).  Much different action. Certainly enough rod to handle anything he'd hook.

My little switch rod really isn't entirely suitable for the steelhead. I was just practicing my casts in a stretch too warm for year-round trout.

I intend to use this rod through the fall and spring for some tight-line high-stick nymphing. It allows me good control (well, not with the Ambush line I've re-purposed but it will with something else I put to the test). I can cast seventy or eighty feet, swing, and get some utility out of that style of big water fishing as well.

It is light enough to swing soft-hackles in teams of two and three come spring.

The aim of my two-handed outfit is to compensate for some wading I cannot do to places just out of reach. Also, I want to build up a little experience with something inexpensive before spending most of a grand on something larger for more serious steelhead pursuit.

Do I want to be out in sleet casting for the elusive steelhead? I think so. I'm not sure. I'm certainly not yet $1000 sure.

I re-used some Ambush line I had, a System One clicker, and bought the rod. I'll probably change to a larger reel this week and have a gently used Lamson Konic 2.0 here on my desk. It'll do fine.

Big line winds poorly on tight reels. Give it room to breathe. The Konic is just big enough considering the line is a 5 wt 215 grain head for the 3wt rod.

I'm into the set-up for under $300 out the door remembering that I only had to buy the rod. My outfitter had it on hand and I always like to help by taking stock they have rather than stock they order.

The two hand fishing is a blast. The 3wt switch is light enough in action that a 10" brown will be a lot of fun. His 25" Grand Daddy will not cause problems should he make the trip, either.

The Echo gear is nice, durable, well polished, and comfortable. The price point is great. Kevin's Sage is a nicer rod - it just is. However, it isn't a low entry-cost outfit. If I knew that I'd do five or six outings a year: well. I'd have something a little bigger.

I'm sold on the Echo right now, though. I'd give them more business. The cork is nice. The machined parts are superb. The glass is a great feel. The guides and strippers are large enough and much nicer than you'd expect on a inexpensive rod.

This is professional gear. It isn't something a brother-in-law whipped out in a garage over a six-pack.

The rod is fun. Two handed is fun. Seventy feet on a single Spey roll is just a blast. Big arc swings and huge reach mends are just a joy.

Hope the steelhead are laughing at you. too. Big water is great - when the bitch won't try to drown you.

Watch out for the Muskegon. She's a different girlfriend entirely.

Prost.

Carp Porn

Let me start by being perfectly clear: I am not a carp fisherman.

I intentionally caught a carp on a jig on Wilson Reservoir in Kansas when I was in 5th grade.

However, one of the Amber Anglers has a real thing for carp. He's not quite right. So, for him I post this particular video.

I could be tempted to Tenkarpa.
I'd have to be really drunk.

Full marks to Scumliner and Kevin Morlock's  crew. [ Is that you Cam Mortenson? ]

Check out Third Coast Fly over in the links once in a while, too.




TENKARPA! from scumliner media on Vimeo.

Shocking

Image at left courtesy NOAA from photographer Benjamin Sanford and hosted on wikicommons. Public domain.

My local TU chapter shocked my local creek yesterday. I don't have our pictures yet.

Eighty-six fish in our sample stretch. Pretty good.

The big thing was that I got to see even more of the watershed: up close and personal. Volunteering for these things helps with the whole "where are the fish" business. It's great education about how trout use their hiding holes.

Rain, Breeze, Cool.

Still, fun time. Good turnout.  And, I have the inside skinny on trout water ten minutes from my front door. How can I beat that?

I'm not on the creek enough. I'm going to change that. I've got a stretch now that is fun to wade. Time to make use of it.

Now if I can get the Amber Liquid guys to stop wading into the pod of fish before casting I'll have something.

Oh, new rod: Echo SR 10'6" 3 wt. I'll use it to compensate for places I cannot wade well. I should be able to swing fine with an Ambush line I have lying about initially and will find something in the spring that does more than streamers. The line I have might swing soft hackles fine as well.

I'll have to re-read the two-handed trout rod info over at the Soft~Hackled Journal.

If you get a chance to volunteer for shocking, do so.

Prost.